Disclosure: this is the third time I have seen the Soweto Gospel Choir in five years. My objectivity is compromised. I am a Soweto swiftie, a ‘So-Go’ perhaps. I can’t get enough of these guys.

Soweto Gospel Choir. Photo supplied

How can that be? After all, this is a 14-strong choir (nine men, five women) accompanied by one musician on keyboard and another on traditional drums. They sing in six of South Africa’s 12 official traditional languages that non-Africans like me can’t understand a word of.

Yet, once the voices soar and the dance beats incarcerate your feet, all you need do is surrender to the music gods and allow the endorphins to flow. You are hooked. As the choir’s emcee reminded us, you mightn’t understand the words, but you will understand “the feeling”.

The history is important. Soweto is a township on the fringes of Johannesburg. It was and remains the heartland of the African National Congress, the movement that brought down the scourge of apartheid. The choir’s music, traditional dancing, ululating and colourful costumes are a part of that history.

Central to it all, of course, is Nelson Mandela, ‘Madeeba’, the...